A Wind Turbine Turns Dry Desert Air Into Precious Drinkable Water

There’s water everywhere on earth, but most is undrinkable or inaccessible. A new kind of wind turbine takes the water in the air and puts it into a form we can imbibe.

Water is everywhere, but there’s hardly a drop to drink. The vast majority of the Earth’s surface is either arid or salty ocean. Only 2.5% of our planet’s water resources are fresh, and just a tiny tiny fraction (0.007%) of that is available for direct human use.

Yet one of the largest sources of water is around us every day: the air. Even our deserts are awash in moist air. Israel’s Negev hits an annual average relative humidity of 64%. That translates into 1.2 centimeters of water for every cubic meter of air.

Israel’s Negev hits an annual average relative humidity of 64%: 1.2 centimeters of water for every cubic meter of air.

Now a French company, Eole Water, has successfully tested a wind turbine as a source of fresh water and renewable energy. Field trials in Abu Dhabi are yielding 132 to 211 gallons daily, and the company’s marketing director Thibault Janin says in the magazine Recharge that "the results have been very good." The results "would be even better, of course, if it was placed in coastal or offshore areas where there is higher humidity and more wind."

Resembling a conventional wind turbine, Eole’s nacelle actually houses a compressor, water condensers, and heating devices. The turbine heats the air before it is condensed to extract and siphon off the moisture into tanks where it is treated. The hot air is simply blown out of vents, and surplus electricity sent to the grid.

The technology, under development for a decade, has already attracted interest from a host of major companies such as Siemens and Danfoss. The companies are keen on selling solutions to the millions of communities around the world that remain without clean water, as well as the ones that are confronting water shortages in the future.

Do they have anything to say about unintended consequences if there was mass take-up of this technology?

For example, would be the consequences of pulling water vapour out of the air on a mass scale have any kind of impact comparable to emitting carbon dioxide and other GHGs into the air as we do via the mass take-up of combustion engined cars?

Had the same thought... Probable answer is that as the relative partial pressure of water vapor decreases, it will be replaced by evaporation from bodies of water, plants, etc... Near a body of unusable water, this would be just fine... Near crops, maybe not.